Have You Done A Golf Ball Fitting?

There are so many factors of golf that we, as players, analyze - club path, swing direction, carry yards, etc. But there is one liiiiittle teenie tiny thing that often goes unmatched: ball selection. We know that a lot of golfers play with whatever decent looking ball they have found OB that hasn't been chopped by a mower, but what ball you use has more impact on your game than you might realize. 

Think of ball selection as the cherry on top of the golf cake—while the golf ball alone won’t make you hit it 50 yards farther, it could give you a few more miles per hour of ball speed or a better spin rate for wedge control. 

But, like, how do you know if the ball you typically play with is actually helping? How do you know if you found your ‘soulmate’ ball? 

Before your next round, select which ball you are using under the “Ball Used” tab and play your round as usual. Make sure you are playing the same ball model for a few rounds. So long as there are no cuts or blemishes (or you don’t blast it into a hazard or ‘deep’ OB…), a golf ball will last you about seven rounds. No need to switch to a brand new one each time you tee it up; as long as it’s the same ball model, you’re good to go.

While this tracking feature doesn’t provide Arccos Members with recommendations, or chart any noticeable differences (...yet). We are gathering information from players of all levels and all ball types to provide some ‘at scale’ insights in the future!

While we don’t have any fancy graphs yet, after playing with the same type of ball for a few rounds, what do you notice about your normal stats? Maybe you squeezed out a few more yards with your driver, or maybe you just wanted to compare a tour ball to the two piece cheaper version. There may be a more narrative difference as in, you held the greens better, or you had a longer carry/rollout than before. And don’t forget to look at your total score, which ball did you shoot a lower score! Our hope is to show you that a ball does make a difference even if sometimes it is subtle. 

Depending on where you live, seasonal changes can also affect what ball you play with. If you are lucky enough to play through winter, but still experience a big enough change in temperatures–it could mean a softer ball choice in colder months and a harder one in warmer months. This can be very subjective and based on your ‘feel’ preferences. Tracking your stats based on environment can also be insightful for your ball choice. 

Arccos isn’t here to tell you what ball to play—however with your own data you can figure that out. There are a lot of great ball options out there, it’s important to know what to look for in the data to help you find your best match. If you are looking for someone to introduce you to the perfect match for you, let us introduce you to Ballnamic. 

Ballnamic is an online fitting program that is designed to help you find the highest performing ball for your game. With a few pieces of information from a launch monitor, Ballnamic provides insights into where you lose (or gain) distance from your driver, seven iron, and your wedges. Ballnamic was designed by the data gurus over at PING. What makes this platform even more genuine is that PING does not make golf balls, so their recommendations are unbiased and based on thousands of data points. We recommend even going through the ball fitting with a pro who knows your game, or just double check your inputs with them in advance. Thankfully you can go through the entire questionnaire before payment and receiving results.

If you’re curious to know if your ball is right for you, here are a few things to consider:

Let’s say you have an average swing speed, which is between 75 and 85 mph with a 6 iron. If you’re closer to 75 mph, you want to generate about 5000 rpm of spin and 5500 rpm of spin if you’re faster. Depending on the spin that you generate, your angle of descent will be between 40 and 45 degrees. The appropriate ball can give you that boost of extra spin you need to hold more greens or maybe lower spin that you want for longer drives.